CHAPTER V.
POST-OFFICE SAVINGS' BANKS.

The idea of Savings' Banks for the industrial classes was first started at the commencement of the present century. They are said to owe their origin to the Rev. Joseph Smith, of Wendover, who in 1799, circulated proposals among his poorer parishioners to receive any of their spare sums during the summer, and return the amounts at the Christmas following. To the original sum, Mr. Smith proposed to add one-third of the whole amount, as a reward for the forethought of the depositor. This rate of interest, ruinous to the projector, proves that the transactions must have been of small extent, and charity, a large element in the work. The first savings' bank really answering to the name was established at Tottenham, Middlesex, in 1804, by some benevolent people in the place, and called the Charitable Bank. Five per cent. interest was allowed to depositors, though for many years this rate was a great drain on the benevolence of the founders. In 1817, these banks had increased in England and Wales to the number of seventy-four. During that year Acts of Parliament were passed offering every encouragement to such institutions, and making arrangements to take all moneys deposited, and place them in the public funds. From 1804 to 1861, the savings' banks of the United Kingdom increased to 638.

A reference to the various deficiencies of the old banks for savings, and the steps which led to the formation of those now under consideration, will not be out of place here. We have said that, in the early part of this century, successive governments offered every inducement and facility to the savings' bank scheme. Such encouragement was indispensable to their success. When first started, Government granted interest to the trustees at the rate of 4½l. per cent. This rate, reduced to 4l. as the banks became more established, now stands at 3l. 5s. per cent. Of this sum depositors receive 3l. per cent.; the difference paying the expenses of management. The encouragement which the Legislature has given to the savings' banks of the country since their commencement, has entailed a loss of about four and a half millions sterling on the public exchequer. From 1817 to 1841, a loss of nearly two millions sterling had been incurred by reason of the rate of interest which was allowed by Government, being greater than that yielded by the securities in which the deposits had been invested.

Savings' banks have suffered most severely from frauds in the management, and the feeling of insecurity which these frauds have engendered from time to time has gone far to mar their usefulness. Government is only responsible to the trustees for the amounts actually placed in its hands. The law, previous to 1844, gave the depositor a remedy against the trustees in case of wilful neglect or default. In 1844, the Legislature thought right to make a most important change in the law, by which trustees of savings' banks were released from all liability, except where it was voluntarily assumed. It remains a most significant fact, that all the great frauds with this class of banks have occurred since that date. We have, indeed, to thank only the influential gentlemen, who, as a rule, take upon themselves the management of savings' banks, that such cases have been so rare as they have.[180] The known frauds in savings' banks are calculated to have swallowed up a quarter of a million of hard-earned money. The fraud in the Cuffe Street bank, in Dublin, amounted to 56,000l.; the Tralee bank stopped payment in 1848 with liabilities to depositors to the extent of 36,768l., and only 1,660l. of available assets; in the same year, the Killarney savings' bank stopped with liabilities of 36,000l., and assets of only half that amount. About the same time, the Rochdale bank frauds became known, and losses to the extent of 40,000l. were the result.

There can be no doubt that the state of the law is still most anomalous, and that the great majority of the people of this country are under the impression that there is Government security for each deposit in every savings' bank. Year by year, changes have been proposed in the Legislature for giving more security to depositors, but the body of managers have hitherto been successful in their opposition. Whilst legislation is thus deferred, the risks to the provident poor still continue. In the report of a Government Commission appointed during one of these annual discussions "on the savings of the middle and working classes," several well-known authorities in such matters, such as Mr. J. Stuart Mill, and Mr. Bellenden Kerr, expressed decided opinions of the insecurity of savings'-bank deposits. Mr. J. Malcom Ludlow spoke to the feeling of the working-classes themselves: "I should say the great reason why the working-classes turn away from savings' banks, is the feeling of insecurity so largely prevailing amongst them."

Mr. J. S. Mill, when asked for any suggestion on the subject, said: "I think it would be very useful to provide some scheme to make the nation responsible for all amounts deposited. Certainly the general opinion among the depositors is, that the nation is responsible; they are not aware that they have only the responsibility of the trustees to rely upon."

Some change, or some new system, had long been regarded as absolutely necessary. In 1861, the number of savings' banks on the old plan was 638; yet out of this number there were no less than fourteen counties in the United Kingdom without a bank at all. Even in England, when the test was applied to towns, all, for instance, of a size containing upwards of 10,000 inhabitants, it was found that there were at least twenty-four without savings'-bank accommodation of any sort. Nor was this all. Even where savings' banks already existed, 355 were open only once a-week, and that for a few hours; some twice a-week; but very few—only twenty, in fact—were open for a few hours every day. When, added to all this want of accommodation and absence of facility, we remember the unsatisfactory state of the law concerning them, there can be no wonder that public attention was called to the subject from time to time. So early as 1807, Mr. Whitbread introduced a Bill into Parliament to make the money-order office at the post-office available for collecting sums from all parts of the country, and transmitting them to a central bank which should be established in London. At that time, the money-order department of the Post-Office had not arrived at the state of efficiency to which it subsequently attained, and the Bill was withdrawn. Other proposals shared the same fate, till, in 1860, Mr. Sykes of Huddersfield, engaged in the savings' bank of that town, addressed Mr. Gladstone on the deficiencies of the existing system. Through his practical acquaintance with the old plan of working, he was able to demonstrate that increased facilities for depositing at any time, and almost at any place, were great desiderata amongst the poorer classes. The same facilities were necessary for withdrawing deposits. Mr. Sykes proposed that a bank for savings should be opened at every money-order office in the kingdom; that each postmaster should be authorized to receive deposits; and that all the offices should have immediate connexion with a central bank in London. The general principle of this scheme was at once seen to be useful and practicable, though, again, the mode of working was evidently unsatisfactory. Mr. Sykes, for instance, proposed that all payments and withdrawals should be severally effected by means of money-orders to be drawn for each separate undertaking. Any one at all acquainted with the machinery of the money-order office was aware that this would of necessity be a slow and complex, as well as expensive plan. Mr. Sykes's idea was, that no deposit should be less in amount than twenty shillings. This arrangement, again, would have gone far to negative the merits of the whole plan, and especially to interfere with its usefulness amongst the classes which the measure was really intended to benefit. For a few months this scheme, like those preceding it, exhibited signs of suspended animation, when it was referred to the practical officers of the revenue department of the Post-Office, and by them resolved into the simple and comprehensive measure which the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed in 1861, and which was the crowning effort of the legislative session of that year.

This Bill, entitled "An Act to grant additional facilities for depositing small savings at interest, with the security of Government for the due repayment thereof," became law on the 17th of May, 1861.

The first savings' banks in connexion with the post-offices of the country were established on the 16th of September, 1861. A limited number was first organized, and in places where no accommodation of the kind had ever been afforded. The extension of the scheme to Ireland and Scotland was effected on the 3d and 17th of February respectively. Nearly all the 2,879 money-order offices of the United Kingdom are now post-office savings' banks. These banks are in regular working order, 2,000, in round numbers, existing in England and Wales, 450 in Ireland, and 400 in Scotland. Many of our largest towns have several banks. Thus, at the present time, January, 1864, we find five banks in Edinburgh, five in Glasgow, twelve in Dublin, ten in Liverpool, sixteen in Manchester, ten in Birmingham, and seven in Bristol. Only seventy of the entire number of new banks have failed to obtain depositors—a fact which sufficiently proves that the advantages offered by the Post-Office establishment are understood and appreciated throughout the kingdom. Up to the end of 1863, the total number of depositors in new banks had been 367,000, of which number no fewer than 307,000 then held accounts. At present (March, 1864), the weekly deposits amount, in the aggregate, to 40,000l., while the withdrawals are no more than one-third of that sum. The total amount intrusted to the post-office banks since their first opening has been 4,702,000l., of which sum no less than 3,263,000l. remain to the credit of depositors. The most gratifying fact in connexion with the new banks is, that they show a much larger proportion of small depositors than the old savings' banks have been able to attract, the average amount of a deposit being 3l. 1s. 9d. in the new, against 4l. 6s. 5d. in the old class of banks.

Between fifty and sixty old savings' banks, including the Birmingham Bank, closed their accounts during the last year (1863), great part of the business of each being transferred to the new banks. A sum amounting to over 500,000l. has already been transferred from these banks to the Post-Office by means of transfer certificates; whilst additional sums, the amount of which cannot be correctly ascertained, have been withdrawn from the old and paid into the post-office banks in cash.

With a view to facilitate the proceedings of the trustees of banks which have been or may hereafter be closed, an Act of Parliament was passed in the last session which will doubtless have the effect of winding up the affairs of many of the smaller banks under the old plan, and increasing the work of those on the new.

The modus operandi of this scheme is as simple as it is satisfactory. On making the first deposit, under the new arrangements, an account-book is presented to the depositor, in which is entered his name, address, and occupation. All the necessary printed regulations are given in this book. The amount of each deposit is inserted by the postmaster, and an impression of the dated stamp of the post-office is placed opposite the entry, thus making each transaction strictly official. At the close of each day's business, the postmaster must furnish to the Postmaster-General in London a full account of all the deposits that have been made in his office. By return of post an acknowledgment will be received by each depositor in the shape of a separate letter from the head office, the Postmaster-General thus becoming responsible for the amount. If such a letter does not arrive within ten days from the date of the deposit an inquiry is instituted, and the error rectified. An arrangement like the foregoing shows the boundless resources which the Government possesses in its Post-Office. The acknowledgment of every separate transaction in each of the money-order offices of the three kingdoms, which in any private undertaking would be an herculean labour, involving an enormous outlay in postage alone, is here accomplished with marvellous ease, and the whole mass of extra communications make but an imperceptible ripple on the stream of the nation's letters flowing nightly from St. Martin's-le-Grand.

When a depositor wishes to withdraw any of his money, he has only to apply to the nearest post-office for the necessary printed form, and to fill it up, stating his name and address, where his money is deposited, the amount he wishes to withdraw, and the place where he wishes it paid, and by return of post he will receive a warrant, in which the postmaster named is authorized to pay the amount applied for. In this respect post-office savings' banks offer peculiar advantages. A depositor, for instance, visiting the metropolis, and having—as he may easily do in London—run short of ready money, may, with a little timely notice to the authorities in London, draw out, in any of the hundred new banks in the metropolis, from his amount at home sufficient for his needs. Another person, leaving one town for another, may, without any expense, and no more trouble than a simple notice, have his account transferred to his future home, and continue it there under precisely similar circumstances as those to which he has been accustomed. Last year this power was largely used, there being no fewer than 20,872 deposits and 15,842 withdrawals made under these circumstances, e. g. at places where the depositor is temporarily residing.[181] The facilities offered by the Post-Office in this way are unique; no other banks can offer them; and such is the admirable system adopted by the Post-Office, that complicated accounts of this nature are reduced to a matter of the simplest routine. At the end of each month the accounts of the two offices concerned in transactions of this kind are reconciled by the addition or deduction of the amounts in question, which arrangement, so far from being an irksome one, enables the Department to obtain a very valuable check upon its gross transactions. Under the old system, a depositor could only effect a transfer of his account from Manchester to Liverpool by withdrawing it from the one, under the usual long notice, and taking it to the other. This course was not only troublesome to the parties concerned, but the depositor ran the risk of losing his money, or, perhaps, of spending the whole or part of it. Under the Post-Office system, however, the transfer may be effected in a day or two, without the depositor even seeing the money, and without the smallest risk of loss. Suppose a depositor wishes to transfer his account from a bank under the old plan to one under the new, or vice versâ, the matter is one of equally simple arrangement. He has only to apply to the old savings' bank for a certificate to enable him to transfer his deposits in that bank to that belonging to the Post-Office, and when he obtains such certificate he may present it to any postmaster who transacts savings'-bank business. The postmaster receives it as if it were so much money, and issues a depositors' book, treating the case as if the amount had been handed over to him. A few days longer are required before an acknowledgment can be sent from London; but this is all the difference between the case and that of an ordinary savings'-bank deposit[182]

In the order of advantages which post-office savings' banks offer the depositor, we would rank next to their unquestionable security their peculiar convenience for deposit and withdrawal. Twelve months ago, a person might be the length of an English county distant from a bank for savings. Under the present arrangement, few persons will be a dozen miles distant from a money-order office, whilst nine-tenths of the entire community will find the necessary accommodation at their very doors. As new centres of population are formed, or as hamlets rise into flourishing villages, and the want of an office for money-orders becomes felt, the requirement will continue to be met, with the addition in each case of a companion savings' bank. Again, the expenses of management—amounting to a shilling in the old banks for each transaction, against something like half that amount in the new—will not allow of the ordinary banks being opened but at a few stated periods during the week. The post-office savings' bank, attached as it is to the post-office money-order office, is open to the public full eight hours of every working day.

Sums not below one shilling, and amounts not exceeding thirty pounds in any one year, may be deposited in these banks; depositors will not be put to any expense for books, postage, &c. and the rate of interest to be allowed will be 2½ per cent.—a sum which, though not large, is all which it is found the Government can pay without loss. It is not thought that this low rate of interest will deter the classes most sought after from investing in these banks. The poorer classes, as a rule, regard the question of a safe investment as a more important one than that of profits, and wisely think far more of their earnings being safe than of their receiving great returns for them.

This scheme, last and best of all, must help to foster independent habits among the working population. Their dealings with the post-office banks are pure matters of business, and no obligation of any sort is either given or received. The existing banks, on the other hand, partake largely of the nature of a charity. An objection frequently urged against savings' banks with much bitterness is, that many great employers of labour are on the directorate of such institutions, and that, consequently, they are able to exercise an oversight over their characters and savings, not always used for the best of purposes. In the Committee of Inquiry to which we have already alluded, cases—designated "rare," we are glad to add—were adduced, from which it appeared that provident workmen's wages had been reduced by their employers, upon the ground of their being already well enough off. No such considerations, however, can affect the new banks: postmasters are forbidden to divulge the names of any depositor, or any of the amounts which he or she may have placed in their hands.[183] The advantages of these banks are so obvious, and the arrangements under which they are worked are of such a simple nature, that they cannot help but be increasingly useful and successful. Moreover, they are so accessible, that the working man, especially, requires nothing but the will to do that which his everyday experience tells him is so necessary should be done for the comfort of his family and home.

CHAPTER VI.
BEING MISCELLANEOUS AND SUGGESTIVE.

1. Every person or firm engaged in extensive correspondence should purchase the "British Postal Guide," at least once a-year. It is published quarterly, and may be had at any post-office for a shilling.
2. Those engaged in frequent correspondence with our colonies or with foreign countries should, in addition, subscribe for the "Postal Official Circular," published weekly for a penny, which gives the latest information on all points regarding the incoming and outgoing of all foreign and colonial mails.
3. Since the division of the metropolis into postal districts, those requiring frequent communication with different parts of London will find of great service a penny book which contains a list of all the streets, &c. in London and its environs, as divided into the ten districts, and giving the initials in each case. This book may be purchased at any post-office. It is said that delay is sometimes avoided by adding the initials of the London districts to letters forwarded from the provinces.
4. As a rule, with few exceptions indeed, letters are forwarded according to their address. It is of paramount importance, therefore, that the addresses of letters should not only be legible, but the proper and the complete address. Perhaps the following suggestions on this head may be found useful, viz.:—
   • (a) Never to post a letter without addressing it either a post town or a county. If the information cannot otherwise be obtained, the "British Postal Guide" contains a list of all post-offices in the United Kingdom, and gives post town to which they are subordinate.
   • (b) Letters for small towns or villages ought not to addressed to the nearest large town, merely because it the nearest; although, as a rule, the town in question will be the correct post town, there are many exceptions, which can only be known by reference to the "Guide" provided, or by inquiry.
   • (c) If the town be not well known, or if there be two towns of the same name in the country, the county ought to be added. (All the cities and county towns are well known.) Thus, letters addressed to Newport should always give the county, inasmuch as there are several towns and villages of that name in England. Again, letters for Newcastle should either have the county added, or the usual designation thus: Newcastle-on-Tyne, Newcastle-under-Lyme, or Newcastle Emlyn.
   • (d) Letters posted in England for Scotland or Ireland, vice versâ (except in the case of the great towns of the three countries), should have the name of the country to which they are sent given as part of the address. N. B. (North Britain) for Scotland, and S. B. (South Britain) for England, would generally be thought sufficient for letters circulating between the two countries.
   • (e) Foreign letters should invariably have the name of the country given (in English if possible). It ought also to be given in full. Letters addressed "London, C. W." and intended for London in Western Canada, have not unfrequently been sent to the West Central District in London, and so delayed. Letters addressed to "Hamilton, C. W." have also been mis-sent to Hamilton in Scotland, the initials having been overlooked.
   • (f) The street, &c. should be given on all addresses. Well known persons and firms get their letters, &c. regularly, although this rule may not be adhered to; but the omission frequently leads to delays in the general distribution, and sometimes to serious mistakes. In large towns where many names of firms approximate in appearance somewhat to each other, the addresses of letters cannot be too fully given. With London letters, this rule should be strictly adhered to.
   • (g) The number of the house, and the correct one, should be carefully added.[184] When information of this sort is kept back, hesitation and delay frequently occur in delivery; though, perhaps, few letters eventually fail to reach their destination on this account.
5. Every letter should be examined with care before it is dropped in a letter-box, in order to see that it has been securely sealed. Thousands of letters are posted yearly without any precaution of the kind having been taken with them, the Post-Office authorities having to secure them as a consequence.[185] Not only so, but twelve thousand letters are yearly posted without any address at all.
6. Good adhesive envelopes, not too highly glazed, of the ordinary size, are sufficient security for letters,[186] if the adhesive matter has been but slightly wetted. If, for additional security, it be thought advisable also to seal a letter with wax, it should be placed outside the envelope. Very frequently, the wax is found to have been placed on the adhesive matter inside the envelope, thus rendering both ineffective.
7. Letters intended for warm climates should not be sealed with wax at all, inasmuch as there is great danger of the wax melting and injuring the letter, as well as the other contents of the mail-bag.
8. Care should be used in securing newspapers and large packets.[187] Newspapers, when not sent at first from the newspaper offices, should be addressed on the paper itself and tied with string, as great risk is run in the matter of covers becoming detached from the newspapers themselves. Book packets, in addition to being enclosed in covers, sealed with wax, gum, or other adhesive matter (but open at the ends or sides), may be tied round the ends with string, as additional security. When the latter precaution is taken, there is less chance of letters getting within the folds of the packet, which may happen when it is not thoroughly secured.
9. Valuable packets or books, if they cannot be well secured, should scarcely be sent through the post. All such packets are liable to be roughly handled, and in the mail-bags exposed to pressure and friction. When safely deposited in the mail-bags, valuable packets are still in danger, inasmuch as the bags in many cases are constantly being transferred from one kind of conveyance to another, and frequently despatched from railway trains by apparatus machinery whilst the train is in motion.
10. Books with valuable bindings, if it is necessary that they should be sent through the post, might be well secured in strong boards; valuable papers or prints should be enclosed in strong paper, linen, parchment, or other material which will not readily tear or break. Fragile articles of value (which should by all means be registered, as special care will then be taken of them in all respects) might best be enclosed in wooden boxes, and then wrapped in paper.
11. It is hardly necessary now to point out that the postage-stamp should be placed on the upper right-hand corner of the envelope, and the address written as much towards the left hand as possible; the address will then be removed from the stamp and the postmark of the office, which will be impressed upon the letter before it is despatched. Delay is caused to the Post-Office operations when the stamp is otherwise placed; and in cases which occasionally occur, where the stamp is placed at the back of the letter, it frequently happens that it is sent away charged with the unpaid postage.
12. The penny receipt-stamp will not, under any circumstances, serve the purpose of the penny postage-stamp, though many people would seem to think differently; all letters bearing a receipt-stamp are, of course, charged as if unpaid. The two kinds of stamp might easily be assimilated, and there are rumours that this may soon be done; but they have their distinct duties at present, and the one cannot take the place of the other.
13. The Post-Office stamped envelopes (which may be obtained singly, in part packets, or entire packets, of two or three sizes, and embossed with either penny or twopenny stamps) are in every way the most secure; and if the paper were of better quality, would be quite as economical, as if the ordinary envelope and the ordinary stamp were used. All risk of the stamps becoming detached is, of course, avoided by the use of stamped envelopes.
14. In place of affixing penny postage-stamps according to the weight of a letter, however heavy it may be, application might be made for twopenny, fourpenny, sixpenny, or shilling labels, as the case may be.
15. In affixing stamps, care should be had lest by excess of moisture all the gum be washed off.[188] The practice of dipping the stamp in water is objectionable, except some absorbent be used immediately to remove any unnecessary moisture. It will be found to be a good plan to wet slightly the gummed side of the stamp, and also the right-hand corner of the envelope, and then to keep the finger gently on the stamp until it is firmly fixed. Highly glazed envelopes should be avoided.
16. Letters about which any doubt exists should be carefully weighed before posting. If the Post-Office weight be exceeded to the smallest extent, even to the turning of the scale, a letter becomes liable to, and is charged higher postage—viz. the difference in double or unpaid postage. So trained has the post-office clerk become of late years by a recent system of surcharges, that few letters can now pass with an insufficient number of stamps affixed. To provide against errors in scales, &c. it would be well in all cases to allow a little margin, or ask that the letter be weighed in the post-office scales.

    In the case of newspapers and book-packets, the same remarks, as well as the same arrangements, apply. It should be particularly remembered that a newspaper when posted, say wet from the printing-office, will often weigh more than it does on delivery; hence surcharges for which the receiver sometimes cannot account.

17. In posting letters, care should be taken to see that they fall into the box, and do not stick in the passage. The pillar-boxes of our towns, whatever may be said to the contrary, are completely safe as a rule, though the same care should be exercised in depositing the letters.[189]
18. The earlier a letter is posted the better in all cases: towards the time for the closing of the letter-box, great haste is indispensably necessary in the manipulations which a town's correspondence must undergo, whilst earlier on it gets carefully disposed of in proper box and bag. When letters or newspapers are posted in great numbers, as in the case of circulars, they should be posted as early as practicable, and should be tied up in bundles with the addresses all in one direction, or they may be delayed in the press of work.[190]
19. Every letter of consequence put into the post should contain the name of the sender and also his address, in order that, if it cannot be delivered as addressed, it may be promptly returned to the writer.
20. All business letters, at any rate, might have the sender's name and address embossed on the back of the envelope. On failure to deliver such letters, they would then be returned to the writers without being opened. Care should be taken, however, not to use envelopes with another person's name embossed in this way, as the letter will be forwarded back to the address thus given, though it should not happen to be the sender's own.
21. Coin is prohibited to be sent in ordinary letters passing between one part of the United Kingdom and another.[191] If a letter be posted containing coin, it will be registered and charged a double registration fee. Coins or any other articles of value, if properly secured, will be certain of careful treatment under the registration system.[192]
22. Letters meant to be registered must never be dropped into the letter-box as in the case of ordinary letters, but should be given to the clerk in charge of the post-office counter or window to be dealt with, who will in each case give his receipt for it. The receipt is the sender's evidence that it has been posted in proper course.
23. Letters containing sharp instruments, liquids, &c. or any other articles which would be likely of themselves, or if they should escape, to do injury to the other contents of the mail-bag, should never be posted. Postmasters have instructions not to forward such letters according to their address, but, when observed, to send them to the Dead-Letter Office, from which place they will be returned to the writers. Valuable letters of this forbidden kind, therefore, run great risks of delay, while the articles are liable to be destroyed in their passage through the post.[193]
24. Though the transmission of coin in letters is now absolutely forbidden, except under the registration scheme, arrangements are made for rendering it easy to send small sums by post in postage-stamps. When presented at any of the numerous money-order offices in the United Kingdom, they may be exchanged for money, at a charge of 2½ per cent. Any person wishful to send through the post a sum of money under five or six shillings will find it cheaper to buy stamps and enclose them, in place of a post-office order. One penny will be charged for buying forty stamps, a halfpenny for twenty stamps. 60,000l. worth of postage-stamps were bought from the public during the year 1862.
25. In sending postage-stamps in letters, care should be taken to use thick envelopes, so that enclosures of this kind may neither be seen nor felt. It is easy to feel a quantity of postage-stamps in a letter sent in a thin and crisp envelope, and some official becoming aware of this may not be able to resist the temptation to appropriate them.
26. No enclosures whatever should be sent in newspapers impressed with the regular newspaper-stamp. Even an old address of such a newspaper should be carefully cut out. It is not enough that it be obliterated with the pen, as the rules forbid writing of any kind in addition to the mere address.[194]

    With newspapers stamped by the ordinary postage-label the arrangements are quite different. Any printed paper or manuscript may be folded up with the newspaper on which an ordinary penny-stamp is placed, provided the total amount of the package does not exceed four ounces. The old address (supposing the newspaper has circulated through the post before) may be left on or not at the discretion of the sender, as this does not interfere with the regulation that nothing in the packet shall be of the nature of a letter. On the other hand, any sentence or message written in ink or pencil on any part of the paper makes the packet liable to the unpaid letter-rate of postage.

27. When any letter, book-packet, or newspaper is lost, miscarried, or delayed, inquiry should be made as soon as evidence has been obtained that the article in question was really posted. The postmaster of the town should be informed by the complainant of every particular relating to the missing letter, &c. the day and hour of its posting, the office at which and the person by whom this was done. In cases of delay or mis-sending, the covers ought to be produced in order that the office stamps on them may indicate the exact place where the delay has been occasioned. Correspondence on the subject of the complaints will subsequently be carried on between the applicant and the Secretary's department in England, Scotland, or Ireland, as the case may be.
28. When any one has reason to believe that he has paid extra postage on a letter or packet improperly, or has been charged more than the case would warrant, he should apply to his postmaster, who will bring the case before the notice of the Secretary, when, if any mistake has been made, the money will be refunded by order. Postmasters cannot return postage paid improperly until instructed to do so from the chief offices.
29. When an unpaid letter is presented to a person who has not the means at disposal of paying the demand upon it (some foreign or colonial letter may be taxed heavily), it will be kept at the post-office a month, if a request be made to that effect, in order that efforts may be made to obtain the necessary money to release it.
30. Postmasters and their clerks are forbidden to be parties to the deceptions which used to be practised, and which are now sometimes attempted, as to the place of posting of a letter. If any communication should be forwarded, under cover, to the postmaster of a provincial town, with a request that it may be posted at his office, it will be sent to the Returned-Letter Branch in London, and from thence to the writer.
31. Advertisements are occasionally seen, and applications frequently made, for defaced postage-stamps. It is stated, in some cases, that a given number will gain certain individuals admission to different charitable institutions. Whatever may be the purpose for which the old stamps are required, the Post-Office authorities have found, by inquiry, that the ostensible reason here given has uniformly been false. It is sometimes feared that attempts are made to clean and re-issue them, though this can be attended with but partial success. It is much more probable that they are sought to indulge some whim, such as papering boxes or even rooms.
32. With reference to money-orders, the public should be careful—
    • (a) Always to give particulars of any order required in writing. When a number of orders are required, to write out a full list of them. Forms for single orders may be had gratuitously at all money-order offices. These forms, or other written papers, are invariably kept on files for a given time, so that reference may easily be made to them in the event of any mistake. Mistakes may, of course, be made either by the applicant or the clerk on duty. If, on production of the paper, the error is seen to have been the sender's, he must pay (generally a second commission) for the necessary alterations: if, however, it be proved to be caused by the clerk issuing the order, the Post-Office calls upon the latter to bear the expense himself.
    • (b) Never to present an order for payment on the day on which it is issued, nor, on the other hand, to allow two months to elapse before calling for payment.[195]
    • (c) When sending an order, either to send it to its destination singly, or in a letter signed only by initials. Money-orders passing between friends need not be accompanied with information such as is sometimes required in business transactions.